|
Tips, Techniques, and Questions -- Technical questions or tips |
2016-02-23, 12:13pm
|
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Feb 10, 2016
Location: Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada
Posts: 66
|
|
Paragon XL or Paragon SC2
Trying to set up doing softglass and maybe down the road doing a little Boro glass.. Beginning with beads and possibly small figurines down the road. Time will tell in which direction it goes. Would be good to have a some what universal kiln if I wanted to advance to something else. Which kiln would be good in your opinion?.. Did you buy a kiln and regret not buying something else in the beginning. Looking for guidance ... Blessed Be
|
2016-02-23, 12:18pm
|
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Mar 07, 2011
Location: Northern California
Posts: 2,023
|
|
Neither of those. Paragon has the worst rep in the business for both reliability and customer service. For a bead kiln I would go with a jenken. For larger I like skutt.
|
2016-02-23, 1:28pm
|
|
Fried Cat
|
|
Join Date: Jan 02, 2011
Posts: 665
|
|
I've had good luck with paragon and their customer service.
The SC2 is.... small. I don't recommend it for beads because once the beads get a little bigger than beginner sized donuts, you are running out of space inside the kiln. Glass tends to stick if you put one bead next to another when it hasn't had sufficient time to cool on the surface. Side by side, beads are going to touch. You either have to be careful about letting it skin over, or you need to minimize how many beads you put in. My SC2 is a pmc kiln for this reason. Six years and going strong.
My Bluebird XL is perfect for any size of bead but you are losing the depth. you can also use it quite easily for boro components. By sculpture are you talking about bead sculpture, goddesses, small animals etc? You should be fine if it's 2 inches or so in height, or less.
If you want to graduate to larger sizes, anything above something you can palm easily, neither will work for that purpose. However I have three kilns. From baby sized to 2' top loaders. If you want to graduate to a bigger glass form, don't let that stop you from selecting a bead kiln and later, a bigger kiln. My drop in is an Olympic. That's a good one as well.
|
2016-02-23, 2:34pm
|
|
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Mar 29, 2009
Location: Northern VA
Posts: 165
|
|
Get a Glass Hive kiln. Great customer service!
|
2016-02-23, 2:39pm
|
|
Fried Cat
|
|
Join Date: Jan 02, 2011
Posts: 665
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by bbisker
Get a Glass Hive kiln. Great customer service!
|
I've heard these were amazing. Probably my next. Love my paragon, but Glass Hive does have a huge bead lady fan base.
|
2016-02-23, 4:02pm
|
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Feb 10, 2016
Location: Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada
Posts: 66
|
|
I marked Paragon as there seems to be a lot of people with them in their pictures of their workshops. Its good to hear all the different opinions
|
2016-02-23, 4:30pm
|
|
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Oct 06, 2008
Location: SE PA
Posts: 1,996
|
|
I vote for planning on graduating to something else.
I bought an SC-2 and it was great to start because I wanted to be able to enamel PMC, fire PMC and anneal beads.
Now ... hope to add an XL in the near future. Not enough room (as stated above) in the SC-2. (enameling and PMC have since gone out the window and are not a consideration for me ... it's all about the glass).
__________________
Laura
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
2016-02-23, 6:46pm
|
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Apr 17, 2009
Location: Back in Tucson for good
Posts: 354
|
|
I have an SC2 and love it. I've never used their customer service so can't comment.
After about 2 years of weekly use a relay died. My hubby bought several replacements but has only had to replace the first one. Going strong for the past 5 or 6 years.
I also shove upwards of 30 mandrels of beads in it by using a little rack on one side. So I finish a bead, put it on the rack, make another, move the first bead from the rack off to the other side of the kiln, put the new bead on the rack. No sticking.
|
2016-02-23, 6:56pm
|
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Apr 08, 2010
Location: The warmer half of MN
Posts: 155
|
|
I have a Bluebird that's probably 20 years old that I bought at a garage sale but was missing some parts. I called up Paragon and was WILDLY impressed with their customer service. They didn't make the exact same parts (the Bluebird has changed design since then) but they helped me figure out exactly what would work to fix it, sent it straightaway, and the parts were really cheap. I think they've got me as a customer for life.
That said, I also have a Paragon firebrick kiln, looks like their Fusion 19 but with a bead door. (Another secondhand one). I really prefer the firebrick one. Once it's up to temp, and has been soaking for a while, I can just turn it off, and it cools down so slowly that nothing ever cracks. The Bluebird, on the other hand, can't be turned off midcycle like that - it loses heat too quickly. The firebrick one doesn't put off nearly as much heat as the Bluebird either, because it's so much better insulated. But the Bluebird is more or less portable; I would never want to move the firebrick one.
|
2016-02-23, 7:04pm
|
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Apr 08, 2010
Location: The warmer half of MN
Posts: 155
|
|
It might be worth calling Paragon and asking what kilns they can put bead doors into - they don't seem to list that on their website.
|
2016-02-23, 7:18pm
|
Gulf coast FL
|
|
Join Date: Sep 08, 2015
Location: FL Panhandle
Posts: 8
|
|
I got a Glass Hive Regular Guy. I am loving it so far for beads.
|
2016-02-23, 7:18pm
|
|
Fried Cat
|
|
Join Date: Jan 02, 2011
Posts: 665
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by 5betsy
I have an SC2 and love it. I've never used their customer service so can't comment.
After about 2 years of weekly use a relay died. My hubby bought several replacements but has only had to replace the first one. Going strong for the past 5 or 6 years.
I also shove upwards of 30 mandrels of beads in it by using a little rack on one side. So I finish a bead, put it on the rack, make another, move the first bead from the rack off to the other side of the kiln, put the new bead on the rack. No sticking.
|
yup. That's what I did too. It was a want-to change. I got tired of shifting mandrels around.
|
2016-02-24, 11:01am
|
|
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Oct 06, 2008
Location: SE PA
Posts: 1,996
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by 5betsy
I have an SC2 and love it. I've never used their customer service so can't comment.
After about 2 years of weekly use a relay died. My hubby bought several replacements but has only had to replace the first one. Going strong for the past 5 or 6 years.
I also shove upwards of 30 mandrels of beads in it by using a little rack on one side. So I finish a bead, put it on the rack, make another, move the first bead from the rack off to the other side of the kiln, put the new bead on the rack. No sticking.
|
I also have a rack ... mine from Devardi ... I had to cut a tiny bit off but it lets me stack about 3 to 4 dozen beads before moving them around to stack more.
Still want a bigger kiln for when my studio is home and I can torch more hours a day.
__________________
Laura
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
|
2016-02-24, 11:42am
|
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Feb 10, 2016
Location: Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada
Posts: 66
|
|
Do you have a picture of the rack your using?
|
2016-02-24, 3:18pm
|
|
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Aug 31, 2006
Location: Knoxville, TN
Posts: 2,210
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by isaberg
That said, I also have a Paragon firebrick kiln, looks like their Fusion 19 but with a bead door. (Another secondhand one). I really prefer the firebrick one. Once it's up to temp, and has been soaking for a while, I can just turn it off, and it cools down so slowly that nothing ever cracks. The Bluebird, on the other hand, can't be turned off midcycle like that - it loses heat too quickly. .
|
There is a brick Bluebird too. But yeah, it is heavy.
I got my Bluebird XL (brick) from Clay King. Back in the day, they had the best prices.
__________________
Kathy
|
2016-02-27, 1:55pm
|
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Apr 17, 2009
Location: Back in Tucson for good
Posts: 354
|
|
I don't have a pic but I'm pretty sure I got it from Arrow Springs. The rack was too long so the hub cut it for me. It's a bent sheet of perforated metal.
|
2016-02-27, 3:40pm
|
|
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Aug 31, 2006
Location: Knoxville, TN
Posts: 2,210
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by 5betsy
I don't have a pic but I'm pretty sure I got it from Arrow Springs. The rack was too long so the hub cut it for me. It's a bent sheet of perforated metal.
|
I think you are right. We have those at the JTV studio, and Arrow Springs set that up.
__________________
Kathy
|
2016-02-27, 4:55pm
|
|
Loving learning
|
|
Join Date: Oct 11, 2010
Location: Florida
Posts: 11,650
|
|
I bought a used Chilipepper (JenKen makes it) and it's fine for my beads. It will also anneal boro, but it won't go up to fusing temp if you think you might ever want to do that.
But the thing is, if I ever decide I want to get a kiln that will, I'm sure I will be able to sell this one. So don't think of it as money that will just fly away, it is going to keep much of the value if you don't wear it out, abuse it, etc.
__________________
My current "hot" fantasy involves a senior discount on glass & tools!
|
2016-02-27, 5:12pm
|
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Feb 06, 2015
Location: US East Coast
Posts: 64
|
|
I went with the SC2, love it
|
2016-02-27, 6:33pm
|
|
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Aug 31, 2006
Location: Knoxville, TN
Posts: 2,210
|
|
I love my chili pepper too. I use it a lot more than my Bluebird, since I rarely have time to make enough beads to need the bigger kiln.
__________________
Kathy
|
2016-02-28, 9:53pm
|
|
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Oct 08, 2010
Posts: 855
|
|
I have both the Paragon SC2 and the Paragon Bluebird XL and love both of them. I have had nothing but excellent customer serve from Paragon considering that the Bluebird XL arrived with a cracked firebrick and they had that picked up and replaced with another kiln in a little over a week.
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT -7. The time now is 10:11pm.
|